Episode 8: The Sick Day Conundrum

EPISODE 8:  SICK DAY CONUNDRUM

 

This episode shows how administrators and teacher-leaders can work together to fid common ground on a problem. 

 

The administrator's perspective:

Sick days are a great fringe benefit for teachers, however, there is certainly some controversy around what is the proper time to use a sick day and the best time to actually “call off” for a substitute.

From the Administrator’s perspective, there is a concern about lost instructional time and the ability to cover classes if there is a “late” call off. 

If the 300 instructional minutes per day is our focus, then it is Dr. Farkas’s recommendation to please call off the night before.  This will allow ample time to secure a competent substitute and write lesson plans that will have some basic instructions to move students forward.

The late “call off” also creates chaos in the building as many times your colleagues will be required to cover your classes and they will lose their planning time that day which affects more students than yours.

The Teacher's Perspective:

Most times the “late” call off is a professional choice to wait until the last minute to call off because no one will be better for our students than their teachers.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a steady decline of substitutes across the nation.  As fewer people are willing to enter our buildings, the pool of candidates gets even smaller.  Managing the daily teaching staff is a struggle that most teachers don’t think about when they close their doors and work with their students.

Mr. Conley gives some bold examples about how a teacher-leader can navigate a staff member who seems to take advantage of the sick day process.

Finally, this podcast ends with a few solutions on how to work together to create solutions through finding common ground.